Automatic flush type chicken battery



Feb. 8, 1955 E. H. SHAW AUTOMATIC FLUSH TYPE CHICKEN BATTERY 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed March 13, 1950 Elmer H. Show INVEN TOR.

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Feb. 8, 1955 E. H. SHAW 2,701,547

AUTOMATIC FLUSH TYPE CHICKEN BATTERY Filed March 13. 1950 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Elmer H. Show INVENTOR.

WM 5m Feb. 8, 1955 E. H. SHAW AUTOMATIC FLUSH TYPE CHICKEN BATTERY 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed March 13, 1950 Elmer H. Show INVENTOR.

B'Y- @unw United States Patent AUTOMATIC FLUSH TYPE CHICKEN BATTERY Elmer H. Shaw, Fort Sam Houston, Tex. Application March 13, 1950, Serial No. 149,361

6 Claims. (Cl. 119-22) This invention comprises novel and useful improve ments in a chicken battery and more specifically pertains to an automatic flushing mechanism for periodically removing droppings from chicken batteries and maintaining a continuous supply of fresh drinking water therefor.

The principal object of this invention is to improve and render more sanitary chicken batteries of the multiple level type, by periodically and automatically flushing and removing chicken droppings from the various levels of the battery; and by providing a continuous fresh water supply for drinking purposes thereto.

A further important object of the invention is to combine in an improved manner the drinking water supply means and the dropping flushing system so that the same may receive water from a single source, while providing for the aforesaid continuous feed of drinking water and the intermittent and automatic supply of water to the flushing mechanism; and wherein the overflow from the drinking fountains is discharged into the flushing system.

Yet another important object of the invention is to provide an automatic flushing device for chicken batteries in conformity with the foregoing objects wherein the time of periodic operation of the device may be readily varied; wherein the flushing operation is automatically performed and the initiation and termination of the flushing discharge is effected by a snap action mechanism.

These, together with various ancillary features and objects of the invention, which will later become apparent as the following description proceeds, are attained by the present invention, preferred embodiments of which have been illustrated, by way of example only, in the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Figure l is a vertical central longitudinal sectional view through a portion of a chicken battery having the present invention applied thereto, and showing particularly the relative arrangements of the drinking water means and the dropping flushing system as applied to each level of the battery;

Figure 2 is an enlarged central vertical sectional view through the flushing tank, its automatic operating mecha nism, and the associated parts of the drinking and flushing systems;

Figure 3 is a view similar to Figure 2 but showing the parts in a position for initiating the flushing operation;

Figure 4 is a diagrammatic, partial sectional view of a slightly modified arrangement of the piping for the drinking water and flushing systems; and

Figure 5 is an enlarged detail view in vertical .section of the lowermost level of the chicken battery showing the flushing system applied thereto.

Referring now more specifically to the accompanying drawings, wherein like numerals designate similar parts throughout the various views, attention is directed first to Figure 1 wherein it will be seen that there is disclosed any suitable form of battery indicated generally by the numeral 10, and which comprises a plurality of levels of chicken compartments, the floor of each compartment being provided with a wire screen, hardware cloth or the like 12 constituting a flooring which will permit chicken droppings to fall therethrough. Mounted in any suitable manner, and preferably as by means of supporting brackets 14 and 16 to the upper surface of the battery 10, is the water supply system and mechanism forming an essential part of the present invention.

As shown best in Figures 2 and 3, there is provided a flush tank 18 of any desired character, the same having 2,701,547 Patented Feb. 8, 1955 a bottom wall 20 which rests upon a cover 22, in turn supported upon the open upper end of a discharge tank 24 which is supported by the above mentioned support brackets 14 and 16. Water from any suitable source is supplied to the flush tank 18 as by means of a conduit 26, this water supply being delivered by a control valve 28 and a depending discharge pipe 30 into the flush tank 18. The valve 28 is of any suitable and known construction, which is adapted for operation by a float controlled lever as set forth hereinafter, the valve being further provided with a flow regulating screw 32 by means of which the maximum rate of flow through the valve can be adjusted as desired.

Since the valve construction in itself may be of various conventional and known designs, and as far as the purposes of this invention are concerned it is only necessary that there be a flow adjusting means indicated by the screw 32, and a float actuated valve operating means to be hereinafter described, a detailed description and disclosure of the construction of the valve is unnecessary to the understanding of this invention and has, therefore, been omitted.

Extending through the bottom wall 20 of the flush tank 18 and through the cover 22 of the discharge tank 24, is a conventional form of flush discharge conduit 34, the same being provided with the customary enlarged head 36 at its upper end having an internal seat for the reception of a conventional form of rubber or other flush control valve 38. In accordance with customary practice, in devices of this nature, the conduit 34 may be retained in position as by a fastening nut 40 threaded upon the externally threaded portion of the conduit 34 for clamping the bottom wall 20 between the enlarged portion 36 and the nut 40.

An overflow conduit 42 of conventional design communicates with the interior of the conduit 34 through the enlarged portion 36 thereof, the upper or adit end of this conduit being so positioned within the flush tank 18 as to maintain the liquid level thereof at any desired elevation. Slidably mounted in a supporting guide 44 vertically adjustable upon the overflow pipe 42, is an actuating stem 46 secured to the upper end of the flush valve 38, and having a headed or knobbed end 48 at its upper extremity. A connecting link 50 has its lower end 52 angulated and slidably and loosely received upon the stem 46 for movement between the headed portion 48 and the supporting bracket 44 thereon. At its other extremity, the connecting link 50 is pivotally secured as at 54 to an intermediate portion of a valve control lever 56, one end of which is fixedly secured and operatively associated with the control valve 28 in a manner readily understood by those skilled in the art.

A tension spring 58 is terminally secured to a hook portion 60 on one end of the control lever 56, and at its other end is anchored as at 62 in such a manner as to impart a stub action to the control lever 56, as the same moves past its dead-center position with respect to the spring, so as to yieldingly urge the lever from its deadcenter position to either its upper position as shown in full lines in Figure 3 at which time the flush valve 38 will be raised as shown in that figure; or to its lower portion shown in full lines in Figure 2, at which time the extremity 52 of the connecting link 50 will be in its lower position to permit the flush valve to be closed.

In order to actuate the lever 56 to either its upper or lower position and past its dead-center position, a float controlled actuating mechanism is provided. The same consists of a pair of vertical standards 64 and 66, suitably supported by the bottom wall 20 of the flush tank 18, and having heads 68 on their upper ends. A weighted float 70 provided with laterally extending slides 72 and 74 which are slidably received upon the standards 64 and 66 is provided, so that the float 70 will rise and fall upon the standards in accordance with the water level prevailing in the tank 18. The buoyancy and weight of the float are suflicient so that when the water has been discharged from the flush tank, as shown in Figure 2, the float will be in its lowered position; but as the water rises in the tank, the float will rise therewith, until at the top level of the water, as shown in Figure 3, the float will be in its upper position.

The float is operatively connected with the lever 60 by means of a pair of cooperating rods 76 and 78, respectively pivotally secured as at 80 and 82 to the end of the lever 56 and to the float 70. At their adjacent ends, each of these rods is provided with a laterally extending eye portion 84 and 86 which embraces the other rod. The proportion of the rods and the arrangement is such that the weight of the float, when the tank 18 is substantially exhausted of water, will move the lever 56 past its dead-center position, whereby the tension of the spring 58 will impart a snap action to actuate the water valve and initiate flow of water from the supply pipe 26 into the interior of the tank 18. This action is effected by the full weight of the float 70 being suspended from the lever 56 by the engagement of the eye portions 84 and 86. As the float rises, the rod 78 will rise and the eye portion 86 thereof will slide upwardly upon the rod 76 until the eye 84 engages the float 70 through its pivot 82; or the eye 86 engages the lever 56. In either event, after a predetermined upward movement of the float 70, which preferably will substantially correspond to the attainment of the desired liquid level in the tank 18 as shown in Figure 3, the lever 60 will be moved past its dead-center position, whereupon the spring 58 will impart a snap action to the same to the position shown in Figure 3, at which time the valve 28 will be closed and the flow of water will be stopped.

It should be here noted that by regulating the rate of flow of water from the supply conduit 26 through manipulation of the valve adjusting screw 32, that any desired time can be obtained for filling the tank 18 to the desired level, so that an automatic and periodic filling and discharging of the flush tank can be effected.

The contents of the tank 18, discharged through the flushing conduit 34, are collected in the tank 24, being immediately discharged through the bottom wall 88 thereof by the conduit 90.

In the modification shown in Figures l-3, 5, the periodic flow of water from the receptacle 24 through the conduit 90 is distributed both to the flushing system and to the drinking water system. To effect this purpose, the conduit 90 is provided with branch discharge conduits 92 and 94, a pair of these branch conduits being provided at each of the plurality of levels of the battery. Preferably, the branch conduits 92 supply drinking water to the various chicken compartments of each level of the battery, and conveniently these branch conduits may be disposed substantially horizontally and if desired may be so proportioned or may be so provided with flow restrictors as to regulate the proportion of flow of water through each branch drinking water conduit both with respect to the individual drinking fountains for each of the compartments upon that level; for proportioning the flow of drinking water throughout the plurality of levels of the battery; and for proportioning the water supply to the drinking fountains and to the flushing system of each level of the battery. Since various means can be provided to effect the desired proportioning of flow to the various outlets, and since the construction of these means in themselves form no part of the present invention, and as the invention is not to be understood as limited to any particular construction of flow proportioning means, further explanation and description is believed to be unnecessary.

As illustrated in Figure 1, each of the branch conduits 92 passes through the various compartments on that level of the battery, and as shown more clearly in Figure 2, has a depending discharge or outlet pipe 96 in each compartment whose lower extremity extends into and discharges freely into any suitable drinking water container 98. The latter has an overflow pipe 100 which discharges excess water from the drinking fountain 98 down through the screening 12 constituting the floor of the battery, thereby insuring a periodic replenishment and cleansing of the water supply for each compartment of the battery.

The branch conduits 94 for the flushing system of each of the levels of the battery are preferably disposed at a downward inclination, as shown best in Figure 3, from the conduit 90 to below the level of the floor screening 12.

Each of the branch conduits 94, as shown more clearly in Figure 1, extends immediately beneath the flooring 12 of that level of the battery and discharges into an inclined flush trough 102 which is downwardly inclined from one end of the battery to the other, and extends transversely across the entire width of the battery and beneath the entire flooring 12 of each of the compartments of the battery upon that level of the same.

It is evident that a single branch conduit 94 could supply flushing water to a single discharge trough 102; or alternatively a plurality of branch conduits 94 could be provided for each level of the battery, and a plurality of flushing troughs 102 may be disposed beneath various compartments upon that level.

In any event, the downward end of the flushing trough 102 extends through the end wall of the battery and has a discharge lip 104 which is received within a soil pipe or waste pipe 106. It will now be seen that the overflow from the drinking fountains as discharged by the overflow pipes will fall through the floors 12 and likewise be collected in the discharge troughs 102. Moreover, the droppings from poultry in the various battery compartments will drop through the flooring 12 upon the trough 102, and will be periodically flushed therefrom by the aforesaid and described flushing mechanism.

Upon the lowermost level of the battery, as shown in Figure 5, the waste pipe or soil pipe 106 is provided with a horizontally and laterally extending portion 108 which conveys the fresh water, the droppings, and the overflow from the drinking fountains to any suitable place of discharge. The lowermost flush trough 102 for the lowermost screening 12 of the batteries, enter the soil pipe 106 slightly above the bottom of the horizontal pipe section 108 to prevent back flow or accumulation of water in the lowermost trough 102.

Referring now to Figure 4, there is disclosed a modified construction by means of which a periodic discharge of water from the flush tank 18 and collection receptacle 24 thereof is proportioned and delivered to the drinking systems and the flush systems for each of the levels of the battery. In this form, the receptacle 24 is provided with a single discharge conduit 110, with which communicate branch conduits 112 for each of the levels of the battery, these branch conduits supplying water to the drinking fountains in the same manner and with substantially the same construction as that set forth in connection with the branch conduits 92.

A plurality of individual discharge conduits 114 are likewise connected to the receptacle 24 and conduct the discharge flow from the receptacle to each of the flushing troughs 102 for each of the battery levels as previously described.

Obviously, by properly proportioning the diameters of the various conduits shown in Figure 4, any desired relative flow of water between the feed systems of the different levels, the flushing systems of the different levels, and between the feed and flushing systems of each level may be attained.

From the foregoing, the construction and operation of the device may be readily understood and that further explanation is believed unnecessary. However, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art after a consideration of the foregoing specification and accompanying drawings, it is not desired to limit the invention to the exact construction shown and described, but all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the appended claims.

Having described the invention, what is claimed as new 1s:

1. An automatic flush type chicken battery comprising a flush trough for droppings, a flush tank, a discharge tank, a discharge conduit interconnecting said flush and discharge tanks, a flush conduit interconnecting said trough and said discharge conduit, means within said flush tank including a flush valve closing said discharge conduit for periodically discharging water from said flush tank through to said discharge tank and through said flush conduit, a fluid supply conduit opening into said flush tank, means in said flush tank operatively connected to said supply conduit and said flush valve successively causing discharge from said supply conduit to said flush tank and from said flush tank to said discharge tank and flush conduit and means regulating the time between successive discharges to said discharge tank.

2. An automatic flush type chicken battery comprising a flush trough for droppings, a flush tank, a discharge tank, a discharge conduit interconnecting said flush and discharge tanks, a flush conduit interconnecting said trough and said discharge conduit, means within said flush tank including a flush valve closing said discharge conduit for periodically discharging water from said flush tank through to said discharge tank and through said flush conduit, a fluid supply conduit opening into said flush tank, means in said flush tank operatively connected to said supply conduit and said flush valve successively causing discharge from said supply conduit to said flush tank and from said flush tank to said discharge tank and flush conduit and means regulating the time between successive discharges to said discharge tank, a drinking fountain in said battery, means supplying drinking water to said means on said fountain for discharging over-flow from said fountain into said trough.

3. An automatic flush type chicken battery comprising a flush trough for droppings, a flush tank, a discharge tank, a discharge conduit interconnecting said flush and discharge tanks, a flush conduit interconnecting said trough and said discharge conduit, means Within said flush tank including a flush valve closing said discharge conduit for periodically discharging water from said flush tank through to said discharge tank and through said flush conduit, a fluid supply conduit opening into said flush tank, means in said flush tank operatively connected to said supply conduit and said flush valve successively causing discharge from said supply conduit to said flush tank and from said flush tank to said discharge tank and flush conduit and means regulating the time between successive discharges to said discharge tank, a drinking fountain in said bat tery, means supplying drinking water to said fountain from said flush conduit, and means on said fountain for discharging over-flow from said fountain into said trough, said periodic discharge means causing simultaneous flow to the fountain and to the trough.

4. An automatic flush type chicken battery comprising a flush trough for droppings, a flush tank, a discharge tank, a discharge conduit interconnecting said flush and discharge tanks, 21 flush conduit interconnecting said trough and said discharge conduit, means within said flush tank including a flush valve closing said discharge conduit for periodically discharging water from said flush tank through to said discharge tank and through said flush conduit, a fluid supply conduit opening into said flush tank, means in said flush tank operatively connected to said supply conduit and said flush valve successively causing discharge from said supply conduit to said flush tank and from said flush tank to said discharge tank and flush conduit and means regulating the time between successive discharges to said discharge tank, means regulating the time between successive discharges.

5. An automatic flush type chicken battery comprising a flush trough for droppings, a flush tank, a discharge tank, a discharge conduit interconnecting said flush and discharge tanks, a flush conduit interconnecting said trough and said discharge conduit, means within said flush tank including a flush valve closing said discharge conduit for periodically discharging water from said flush tank through to said discharge tank and through said flush conduit, a fluid supply conduit opening into said flush tank, means in said flush tank operatively connected to said supply conduit and said flush valve successively causing discharge from said supply conduit to said flush tank and from said flush tank to said discharge tank and flush conduit and means regulating the time between successive discharges to said discharge tank, means regulating the time between successive discharges, said flush conduit including an inclined branch pipe connecting said main to said trough, and a lateral branch pipe connecting said drinking fountain to said flush conduit.

6. An automatic flush type chicken battery comprising a flush trough for droppings, a flush tank, a discharge tank, a discharge conduit interconnecting said flush and discharge tanks, a flush conduit interconnecting said trough and said discharge conduit, means within said flush tank including a flush valve closing said discharge conduit for periodically discharging water from said flush tank through to said discharge tank and through said flush conduit, a fluid supply conduit opening into said flush tank, means in said flush tank operatively connected to said supply conduit and said flush valve successively causing discharge from said supply conduit to said flush tank and from said flush tank to said discharge tank and flush conduit and means regulating the time between successive discharges to said discharge tank, said successively discharging means including a control valve on said supply conduit, a float in said flush tank, means connecting said control valve to said float and said flush valve and being responsive to a predetermined maximum water level in said flush tank for closing the control valve and opening the flush valve and responsive to a predetermined minimum level to permit closing of the flush valve and opening of the control valve, said connecting means including a snap-action mechanism.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 670,802 McCourt Mar. 26, 1901 769,550 Leithauser Sept. 6, 1904 1,172,584 Conrad Feb. 22, 1916 1,927,416 Petry Sept. 19, 1933 2,007,453 Lardner July 9, 1935 2,309,458 Ingraham Jan. 26, 1943 2,523,615 Fell Sept. 26, 1950 

